Foreign Language
Foreign language instruction has changed dramatically over the past few decades. As the nation becomes increasingly diverse, Spanish has become the language of choice for middle and high school foreign language classes. However, in recent years, policy makers and educators have become concerned that not enough emphasis is put on Middle Eastern and Asian languages, especially in the wake of Sept. 11.
The number of high school students taking foreign languages has increased by a third since 1990 to 43 percent of students. But the vast majority enroll in Spanish, followed by French and German. Languages like Chinese and Arabic are lumped together and amount to 1.3 percent of high school students enrolled in foreign language classes. The number of students enrolled in Russian has declined from 16,000 students in 1990 to 11,000 in 2000.
One hotly-debated topic among foreign language educators and government officials is how well a student must know a language to benefit from taking the courses or to be labeled proficient. Recent attempts at a national assessment of Spanish language proficiency were shut down after only 42 percent of invited schools participated in its field tests, not enough to confirm that the results were valid. The question of how students learn and internalize linguistic concepts in the early years has emerged from brain research and examining what helps older students also should be a focus of education reporting.
In attempts to introduce the concept of foreign language learning at a younger age, a growing trend among is to offer immersion courses. Children in preschool or elementary school immersion programs most often emerge from the program fluent in two languages. The most successful immersion programs are known as "dual immersion," which pair students fluent in English with students fluent in another language.Many studies support this method and it shows success for not only English speaking students, but helps limited English students become bilingual. Click on the links to the left to find recent studies and publications, examples of best practice, sources and reporters' stories.
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J. David Edwards
Executive Director
Joint National Committee For Languages
4646 40th Street, N.W., Suite 310
Washington, DC 20016
Tel: (202) 966-8477 Fax: (202) 966-8310
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Dan Davidson
President
American Councils for International Education
1776 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Suite 700
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: 202-833-7522 Fax: 202-833-7523
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Antonia Folarin Schleicher
Executive Director
National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages
National African Language Resource Center
4231 Humanities Bldg.
455 N. Park Street
Madison, WI 53706
Tel: (608) 265-7905 Fax: (608) 265-7904
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Richard Brecht
Professor and Director
University of Maryland
Center for the Advanced Study of Language
CASL Box 25
College Park, MD 20742
Tel: (301) 226-8801
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Myriam Met
Acting Director
National Foreign Language Center
University of Maryland
5201 Paint Branch Parkway
College Park, MD 20742
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Christine L. Brown
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
Glastonbury, Conn. Public Schools
232 Williams Street
Glastonbury, CT 06033
(860) 652-7954
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Nancy Rhodes
Center for Applied Linguistics
4646 40th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20016-1859;
Tel: (202) 362-0700 Fax: (202) 362-3740
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The National Foreign Language Center
University of Maryland
7100 Baltimore Avenue, Suite 300
College Park, MD 20740
Tel: (301) 403-1750 Fax: (301) 403-1754
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The National Capital Language Resource Center
2011 Eye Street, N.W., Suite 200
Washington, DC 20006
Tel: (202) 973-1086 Fax: (202) 973-1075
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Bret Lovejoy
Executive Director
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
700 S. Washington St., Suite 210
Alexandria, VA 22314
Tel: (703) 894-2900 Fax: (703) 894-2905
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Elaine Tarone
Director
Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA)
University of Minnesota
619 Heller Hall
271 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
(612) 624-2023
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Dr. Mary Lynn Redmond
Executive Secretary
National Network for Early Language Learning
P.O. Box 7266
A2A Tribble Hall
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, NC 27109
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Lori Langer de Ramirez
President
Herricks Public Schools
100 Shelter Rock Rd.
New Hyde Park, NY 11040
(516) 248-3163
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Global Education
Monday, March 8, 2010
Global Education
Global Education
EWA Education Reform brief looking at the state of global education in US schools. How are schools looking at the world in foreign language, history and religion classes? Emily Sachar recently authored Schools for the Global Age: Promising Practices in International Education and is a two-time winner of the Grand Prize for Education Reporting, awarded by EWA, is the author of the reform brief.
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U.S. Elementary and Secondary Immersion Survey
The results of six surveys on American foreign language immersion programs at the elementary and secondary levels.
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Foreign Language Instruction in the United States: A National Survey of Elementary and Secondary Schools
This 1997 report is a comprehensive study of current patterns and shifts in foreign language education in the U.S., examining topics such as enrollment, teaching methodology and curriculum.
12/1/1997
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Language Proficiency Guidelines - Speaking pdf
Guidelines for characterizing students into levels of language proficiency, based on the quality of their speaking abilities.
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Language Proficiency Guidelines - Writing pdf
Guidelines for characterizing students into levels of language proficiency, based on the quality of their writing abilities.
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Less Commonly Taught Languages of Emerging Importance: Major Issues, Cost Problems and Their National Implications pdf
This study looks at trends in the teaching of less commonly taught languages such as Arabic, Hindi and Japanese. Issues of funding, enrollment and teacher needs are among the topics disseminated in the report.
11/1/1997
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Standards for Foreign Language Learning pdf
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Expanding Chinese-Language Capacity in the United States pdf
This report addresses the urgent need for American students to demonstrate functional proficiency in Chinese and identifies several initiatives that could be a catalyst for this type of learning.
Asia Society, 6/1/2005
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AP World Languages Course Pages
The home pages for AP World Languages, including information on the development of the AP course and exam. Home pages are available for Italian, Chinese, Japanese and Russian. Also available are course descriptions for French language and literature and Spanish language and literature.
College Board, 2/15/2005
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The National Language Conference: An Introduction to America's Language Needs and Resources pdf
This briefing document from the National Language Conference at the University of Maryland cites Defense Department needs for a wide range of foreign language speakers for reasons of national security and economic competitiveness.
Center for Advanced Study of Language, University of Maryland, 6/24/2004
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The Teaching of Arab Languages
A study of the state of Arabic language learning in the U.S., focusing on the challenges it faces with a dearth of available materials, the required change in mindset and controversies over dialects.
7/1/2003
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Global Challenges and U.S. Higher Education
This 2003 conference held at Duke University on behalf of the Coalition for International Education highlighted 15 research papers addressing the need for international and foreign language education.
Coalition for International Education, 1/25/2003
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Foreign Language Enrollments in Public Secondary Schools pdf
The bare facts about enrollment in various major foreign languages, broken down by state and level of instruction. It also tracks changes in enrollment rates for different languages.
5/1/2002
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GAO report on shortages in people fluent in other languages pdf
While government agencies have a stronger need than ever for people with foreign language proficiency, the number available is far lower than they had hoped.
1/1/2002
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National Assessment of Educational Progress Demonstration Booklet (2004) pdf
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More U.S. children adding Chinese to their ABCs
As more parents have sought to give their children an edge in an era when China is a rising economic power, school districts have expanded Chinese language programs and students from a wide range of backgrounds have joined them. Alex Dobuzinskis, Reuters, April 21, 2011
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Principal challenges transient students
by Alexis Stevens
Osborne High School junior Charlie Santiago has moved so many times since kindergarten, it gets hard to explain. Students come and go throughout the school year at Osborne, as migratory families move often in search of work. The school's transient rate is about 64 percent. But principal Steven Miletto doesn't believe in making excuses. And his mission of uniting a school with a less than stellar reputation is paying off.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution, 1/5/2009
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Suffering test anxiety
by Liz Bowie
Inti Guaman is a senior on the brink of either going off to college or staying behind to get through high school. It all depends on how quickly he is able to soak up vocabulary words so that he can pass his High School Assessment exam in English II.
The Baltimore Sun, 10/30/2008
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Oregon sets new high school diploma requirements
by Betsy Hammond
Oregon students will have to pass state reading, math and writing tests, or prove they have the equivalent skills, to get a high school diploma, beginning with this fall's freshmen.
The Oregonian, 6/20/2008
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Immigrant students: A year in the life of new immigrant students
by Macarena Hernandez and Gary Jacobson
Read this Dallas Morning News series about Dallas area schools trying to meet the growing demands of students coming from Mexico.
The Dallas Morning News, 6/7/2008
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In L.A., his own wall of China
by David Pierson
Zhao yan feng is a guest instructor teaching Chinese language at an urban Los Angeles high school. The Los Angeles Times chronicles his challenges working with American teenagers.
The Los Angeles Times, 3/1/2008
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Brave new world for Chicago schools
by Kayce T. Ataiyero and Carlos Sadovi
No school district in the nation has yet managed what Chicago officials proposed last week: a sweeping, simultaneous overhaul of a cluster of failing schools. Experts say the plan to fire the staffs of eight schools and replace them with better qualified educators is somewhat of a gamble, one that will require an almost perfect alignment of stellar principals, committed teachers and re-invigorated curriculum and programs to succeed. But that's no guarantee.
The Chicago Tribune, 1/29/2008
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As China booms, so does Mandarin in U.S. schools
by Elizabeth Weise
Chinese isn't the new French- it's the new English. Mandarin. Chinese courses are being taught in elementary schools across the country. It's partly a reflection of how parents increasingly see China's emergence as an economic power as something for which they should prepare their children.
USA Today, 11/20/2007
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Building a Nation of Polyglots, Starting With the Very Young
by Joseph Berger
Seven-year-old Cooper Van Der Meer is learning Spanish as a second language.That's right. This American native is lucky enough to be in a school system that considers the acquisition of languages so important in today's polyglot, globally entwined America that students start learning a foreign language in kindergarten. With an economy that recognizes few geographical borders, and with people from all over the planet becoming our next-door neighbors, more Americans are demanding language instruction earlier in school.
The New York Times, 11/14/2007
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Rethinking an emphasis on achievement
by K. Connie Kang
Some Korean Americans are asking if the community's commitment to education -- the key to its economic rise -- is also exacting a punishing cost, particularly on the young.
The Los Angeles Times, 10/23/2007
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An all-boys school with an unusual Latin focus
by Mensah M. Dean
Boys' Latin of Philadelphia Charter School is the first local charter school to have a single-sex student body. In addition, the school coincides with a trend: many public high schools across the country are teaching Latin, which supporters believe help students on their SATs.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/12/2007
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'First Steps' in two languages
by Summer Harlow
With Hispanic students less likely to graduate from high school than blacks or whites, educators are looking to bilingual and multicultural early education programs as one way to narrow the gap.
The Delaware News Journal, 9/27/2007
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In growing cities, a loss of students
by Faye Bowers
Where did the students disappear to? Public school officials in several districts in Arizona, California, and Texas - particularly those with a high share of Hispanic students - are seeing a drop in enrollment this school year over last, and many are at a loss to explain it.
The Christian Science Monitor, 9/24/2007
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English learners up in Nevada, but federal funding for those students down
by Emily Richmond
The U.S. Education Department plans to trim $2.6 million from Nevada's share of funds for English-language learners, baffling state educators who say the 30 percent reduction from the past school year will jeopardize services and programs for students. Almost all those federal dollars were earmarked for Clark County, where nearly one out of every five students has been identified as an English-language learner.
Las Vegas Sun, 7/31/2007
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Bilingual program debated in Texas
by Gary Scharrer
Put young children who struggle with English in a classroom with English-speaking students and teach in two languages. Soon, both groups of children will become bilingual and bi-literate as the students help each other develop two languages, supporters of dual-language immersion say. But others are balking at the experiment that Texas lawmakers approved this spring, contending it's turning children into guinea pigs.
San Antonio Express-News, 7/7/2007
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A New School Plans to Teach Half of Classes Using Arabic
by Elissa Gootman
The New York City school system will open its first public school dedicated to teaching the Arabic language and culture in September, with half the classes at the school for grades 6 to 12 eventually taught in Arabic, officials said. "We are wholeheartedly looking to attract as many diverse students as possible, because we really want to give them the opportunity to expand their horizons and be global citizens," said Debbie Almontaser, a 15-year veteran of the school system who is the driving force behind the school and will be its principal.
New York Times, 2/13/2007
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N.J. bucks tide on reading for English-learners
by Mary Ann Zehr
Taking a position that is unusual these days, New Jersey officials are promoting research that says bilingual education methods have an edge over English-only methods in teaching English-language learners to read.
Education Week, 1/16/2007
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Mixteco students
by Ted B. Kissell
Because of the dire poverty of Oaxaca in general and the Mixteco region in particular, Mixtecos have for decades been migrating north in search of work, first to richer agricultural areas of northern Mexico and more recently to the United States. The county's schools are just beginning to react to the needs of this linguistically and culturally distinct group of Mexican immigrants.
Ventura County Star, 11/19/2006
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Language, income barriers force suburban schools to adapt
by Pat Kossan
Districts often are financially and politically unprepared to deal with the growth in immigration and poverty. Some schools take the lead in working with kids who need more time, energy and attention. Others improvise and adapt. Sometimes students falter or give up.
Arizona Republic, 10/30/2006
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School's Creole classes causing a stir
by Peter Bailey
Morningside Elementary School offers Haitian Creole as part of its dual-language curriculum. The students attend courses in English for the first half of the day and then Creole for the remainder. About 40 students in kindergarten and first grade are enrolled in the program. But some parents say it should not be offered at all.
The Miami Herald, 9/18/2006
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Starr King Elementary talks the talk (in Mandarin)
by Jill Tucker
Families from far-flung neighborhoods across San Francisco are enrolling at Starr King Elementary School so their children can learn Mandarin. The school will be the only place in the district -- and one of the few public elementary schools in the country -- in which the majority of instruction for the two kindergarten classes is in the Chinese national language.
The San Francisco Chronicle, 8/21/2006
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